Crackerjack Kids covers the five key competencies in the curriculum

The CJK programme connects directly with the five key competencies outlined in the New Zealand Ministry of Education Curriculum and correlates to the underlying concepts of the Health and Physical Education Curriculum.

Thinking: Through the inquiry-based approach, children are encouraged to think about the ‘why’ as well as the ‘how’. They are encouraged to think a problem through as part of the decision making process.

Managing self: in small-sided games, children are given the opportunity to learn how to manage themselves, as the teacher is not acting like a referee in every situation. it also gives the teacher opportunity to assess the children and formulate questions to further enhance the depth of learning.

Relating to others: Physical Education through the Crackerjack Kids programme offers children another context to interact with their peers. They learn to relate to others through the sharing of ideas and discussions. opportunities to reflect and co-operate all develop a student’s ability to work in a team.

Participating and contributing: Students are actively engaged with the sharing and trialling of ideas, both theirs and others. They contribute and listen to others and through this process have the opportunity to develop leadership skills.

Language and texts: Children develop confidence around expressing their feelings and ideas, both orally and through some class and personal worksheets.

The value for us is actually in the linking of the character value to PE. When the new curriculum came out, what we were looking for – our school is very much hinged around key competencies, maybe not so much the values – but I guess the key competencies are similar to character, “how do you manage yourself?”, “how do you relate to other people?”, and so it is “how do you go about that?”. Everything in our school is hinged around that.

So what we were actually looking for when we signed up for Crackerjack Kids was something that would actually help us deliver that side of the programme. And that is what it does for us.